Things That Slipped Through the Cracks
by LifeIsTooShortEatIceCream
Summary: All Jasper could do was stare. He had watched Alice die on that snowy, bloody night fifteen years ago. Who, then, was this tiny, beautiful women standing at his door?


**Prologue**

The room is filled with the cold hush of their unneeded breaths. Pairs of eyes search the floor or settle on clasped hands. They are still as fallen snow. It is as though even though they do not touch, they support each other's weight. If one moved, the rest would crack and fall apart. Too many things are falling apart. They must remain together.

A blonde haired man sits in the middle. His brow has finally folded under the weight of worry, no matter how hard he has tried to keep it straight. He wishes he could cover his eyes from the rest of them, children as they are, looking to him for guidance that he can no longer give.

"Tell us the truth, Carlisle." There is a shift in the room. They brace themselves. They brace each other.

"A war..." He gazes out at the peace of the snow. "Is inevitable." He sees the faces of his children, his wife. His family. This could be the beginning of the end. "I-I'm sorry." He presses a hand over his eyes, knowing he is apologizing for things that weren't his fault. But it is all he has left to give. "I'm so sorry."

* * *

><p>"You can leave us. You can go, it's all right." Esme's eyes were wilted daffodils, two suns drowned by the horizon. The words were killing her. "If we fight together... some could die. I have Carlisle, and I... I understand what it would be like if he..." She swallows. Her fingers are twisted in the sleeves of her dress. They still tremble. "It would be safer to leave. We... <em>I<em>... would understand."

It is a lie. She doesn't understand. To Esme, loving someone means that you choose to stay.

Her words are to everyone, but they all know that only two will actually listen. Those two are different from the rest of them, had never been woven quite right into the family, always just a bit wrinkled and miscolored. They cling singularly to each other. They always have.

The bubbling chaos of the panic of goodbye is subdued by tight smiles, promises for the future. Edward knows they aren't true, and he knows that _they _know they aren't true. If they leave now, they rip a hole in the fabric of the family. One that can never be put back together. Even if they all survive, even if they can find each other again, even if they come back with needle and thread and apologies to try to mend it.

Edward thinks that he will never forgive them. He watches as Esme's face finally break and she shakes with unseen tears, and Carlisle can only press her face to his chest, unable to find words of comfort anywhere in this cold house.

No one can watch as Jasper leads his wife out the door.

* * *

><p>"We have to help them. We have to help. Jasper, we <em>have <em>to!" Her voice is a wail. Her fingers clench at her neck and she throws them back down to her side, not seeming to realize when they come back up a moment later to claw at her hair. She paces, furiously, chest heaving with air that she doesn't need.

"Tell me what you saw."

"No, no, I- I can't! I just-" She drops to her knee, rakes her hands down her face. He tries to reach out to her, but she stands too quickly, her shoulders violently twisting away.

"Please, calm down. It'll be all right." The words of comfort are clumsy in Jasper's mouth. He is scared. Her emotions are whipping out so violently that he can't catch hold of them, can only be rocked and shook by them as wave after wave of anguish and worry plummet them both. "Honey, please, _please_-" He tries to put a hand on her arm, but she stands and whips around, not even seeming to notice him.

"It's Renesmee. You know how she just- she wraps around and makes everything so-" she rams her palms into her forehead. "So- so impossible! This is impossible! I can't I- I can't see-"

Jasper's shoulders are caved in. He wants to press her to his chest and still her trembling, grab her fingers and kiss them so they stop clenching at her pale skin. _If you can't help her, no one can_, he tells himself. But is it true? His rib-cage sloshes with the acid of guilt and worry. He wishes, for the first time, they hadn't left. "Tell me, honey. Please. Is there a fight? Will somebody die? Is it the Volturi?"

"No, no- I mean, I- I don't know! Jasper I can't _see_! I just- Oh my God. We- we just have to go. They're all in trouble. I know they are. We have to warn them."

"Of what?"

"_I don't know_!" She shrieks. Jasper presses his palms to the wall at his back.

"We can't leave, darling," he says, his voice quiet, hesitant. "It's too dangerous to go back."

"No. We have to."

"I won't let you. I won't let you get hurt." It is a whisper. A plea.

For the first time since she had the broken, blurry vision, Alice stills. Her palms are clenched tightly at her sides, chest straining against the fabric of her shirt, dark eyes wide open and alive with... with...

_Fury_.

Jasper tenses his muscles with the force of it, feet widening into a defensive position before he even realizes what is happening. _What is he doing? This is his wife. He would never hurt her. Not for the world, not for himself. Doesn't she know that? _

"Listen to yourself," she spits, taking a step closer. "_Listen to yourself!_" She shrieks. "The Cullens- they- they're our family! They took us in, when we were nothing but two blood-thirsty _monsters_! They didn't even know who we were! And then you- you fucked up every single fucking month, and we had to move, but did they complain about it even once?" Her fingers snatch at the air as she grabs carelessly for words. "Did they say a word about having to move across the country, across _continents_ for God's sake, for the sake of one- one _cruel_ vampire who they didn't even know? They protected us, _loved us_, for the past twenty years, Jasper! And-" Her voice breaks, and she wraps her arms around her stomach, refusing to back down even though her chin quivers. The knot in her throat is painful, and she can only whisper around it. "And I know how hard it is to love you."

Jasper doesn't breathe. She looks away. He can only stare. The only thing that could comfort him was the thing that was currently hurting him. He does love the Cullens, he thinks, loves them for how they accepted his wife. But not enough to go back, to risk _her _life for them.

He doesn't care if she hates him. If she is alive and safe, she could loathe him with every ounce of her being. "We can't go back."

"You're a monster," she whispers, knowing the words are a lie even as she pushes them out.

Jasper's broken eyes meet hers. He reaches out a hand, waiting, ready for her. Always ready to take her back.

She turns on her heel, and runs out the door. She will run all the way to the Cullens if she has to. Jasper will always be there for her. She trusts him to keep himself alive. But the Cullens - the Cullens might already be dead. If she _can_ help them, she _must_.

She has to stop, though, after only a minute, for she is sobbing too hard to run.

* * *

><p>She has spent the last days in solitude, the wind the only noise in the quiet forest as it whistles past her ears as she runs. She refuses to look ahead to the future. Wasting a moment could waste the Cullen's lives, she thinks.<p>

The truth is that for the first time, she _can't _see ahead. She can only see her past. See Jasper's soft eyes, his broad shoulders hunched as she screams at him.

He is not a monster. She doesn't know what he is. But not that. Never that.

She feels sick with the emptiness inside her, the whispering air surrounding her hand where _his _should be.

She is close to the house. The forest smells familiar. She can hear the boundary river.

There is the crack of a stick behind her. A wolf, she thinks, a very brave one. She keeps running. Almost there. Please, Cullens, please...

More sticks. The swift crunch and hiss of snow as footprints glide over it, the rustling of brown leaves. Behind her. The noises are coming form behind her. The Cullens? Are they here? Are they-

Red eyes. So many red eyes. She freezes. All her life is in this moment. She can't discern her visions from reality. A yell, a beautiful one, a vampire one. Strong hands grab onto her arm. She screams for help, for Jasper. He had to have followed her, didn't he? He said he would always protect her. Always.

Too many. There are too many. Ripping metal, the sting of venom on her arm, on her leg, her neck, hands grabbing and snow flying in the air so white with the reflection of the sun-

She closes her eyes. And lets herself go.

* * *

><p><em>"She sees..."<em>

_"Something like the future..."_

_"Saving us..."_

_"Volturi will never let her go..."_

_"Put the girl with her!"_

_"Her mother?"_

_"No, no, please, let her go! Please!"_

_"Should I?"_

_"I don't know how... I might kill her."_

_"She's already as good as dead. Do it."_

* * *

><p>"I'm sorry. Do you hear me? I'm sorry."<p>

* * *

><p>For the second time in her life, Alice awoke into pain and darkness.<p>

**New story, I'm so excited. If you would like more chapters, please review! Also, I have a one-shot with a bit of Alice's back-story that was supposed to go in this prologue (it was originally supposed to be flashbacks all the way from Alice's human days, but I quickly realized that would've turned into a novel in and of itself...) so if you would like to see that, read 'How They Broke Her' on my profile. **

**Thank you! :)**


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